Defense Sec. Austin Says There Have Been Incidents of People Having ‘Tough Encounters’ With Taliban While Trying to Get to Airport

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there have been incidents of people in Kabul “having some tough encounters” with the Taliban.

On Friday President Joe Biden said, referring to Americans in Afghanistan, “We have no indication that they haven’t been able to get in Kabul through the airport.” This was almost immediately fact-checked by correspondents from multiple news outlets, and after the president spoke, news broke that Austin told lawmakers in a briefing call that Americans have been beaten by the Taliban in Kabul.

ABC News’ Martha Raddatz pressed the Defense Secretary Sunday over why U.S. forces can’t go out into Kabul to “help those Americans, help those Afghans who helped Americans get to the airport.”

“We have been out,” Austin said, pointing to the helicopters that helped evacuate 169 American citizens from a hotel near the airport.

Raddatz again asked, “You’ve got tens of thousands of people out there desperate to get to the airport, surrounded by the Taliban, so why can’t the U.S. send convoys out there?”

“If you have an American passport, and if you have the right credentials, the Taliban has been allowing people to pass safely through,” Austin responded.

“Not in all cases,” Raddatz remarked.

“There’s no such thing as an absolute in this kind of environment, as you would imagine, Martha,” Austin said. “There have been incidents of people having some tough encounters with Taliban. As we learn about those incidents, we certainly go back and engage the Taliban leadership and press home to them that our expectation is that they allow our people with the appropriate credentials to get through the checkpoints.”

You can watch above, via ABC.

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